Suspended Animation

DESCRIPTION

Large scale drawings on paper of the suspended body in charcoal, emulsion and acrylic paint.

These drawings are informed by the live drawings I’ve been making from performers using the Japanese art of ‘Shibari’ – elaborate rope tying. These are intense performances, both physically and psychologically and a complex drawing experience, on many levels. This is part of my investigation into drawing dynamic figures from life that challenge traditional notions of ‘Life Drawing’.

The suspended body is a powerful metaphor of freedom, submission, restraint…a liminal space?

I’m interested in the tension and weightlessness of these suspensions, the fragmentation of the body and its interaction with the taut lines of the rope/drawn line.